There was plenty of attacking impetus from both sides at the start, with Hull threatening first, then Chelsea wasting several presentable chances through Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto.
Mamadou Sarr announced his presence in defense with a goal-line clearance, then raised eyebrows with a glorious long ball to Estêvão, who shrugged off a defender, rounded the goalkeeper … but proceeded to miss the empty net.
Liam Delap followed suit, blocking an attempted clearance from the Hull City goalkeeper, but failing to tap the ball into the empty net thinking that it had already crossed the line on the initial bounce. Would’ve been hilarious, had the game not been still scoreless.
The weather had turned rather nasty by then, cold sleet pelting down, sapping some of the energy and impetus out of the game. That may have suited us in the final balance, and Pedro Neto picked out the bottom corner from 20 yards out just before the break to give us a well deserved 1-0 lead.
The second half continued that pattern, with Andrey Santos denied by a strong save. But then a corner from Neto bounced through about three pairs of legs before finding the back of the net to give us the all-important second goal soon after the restart.
Unlike on Tuesday, we would not relent at 2-0. Delap would set up a tap-in for Estêvão on the hour-mark, then do the same for Neto ten minutes later to complete the winger’s hat-trick. Quality work from the center forward after a mildly infuriating first half.
Hull looked for a consolation, but not even a couple shaky moments from Sánchez was enough to get them on the board. (Sánchez then made up for that with a fingertip save in stoppage time to keep the clean sheet.)
Carefree.
- Rosenior rotates about half the team, with Sarr getting his second debut for the club
- Welcome back from injury for Tosin
- Jesse Derry professional debut!
- Neto has now bettered last year’s career-best goals total (assuming he gets credit for the second goal, which he should) with his 8th, 9th, and 10th goals of the season
- Three assists for Delap!
- Seventh goal of the season for Steve-o
- The draw for the fifth round is on Monday night
- A full week before our next game: at home against Burnley!
- KTBFFH