11/12/1999  Hull 1 Chelsea 6
 
They said Chelsea were Southern softies.

They said the team which graced Europe against Lazio in 
Rome's Olympic Stadium doesn't have the stomach for football's 
more unappetising fare.

Well, against lowly Hull City in the third round of the FA 
Cup Gianluca Vialli's team possessed steel as well as 
style.

A hat-trick from Uruguayan international Gustavo Poyet and 
goals from £10million striker Chris Sutton and Roberto di 
Matteo plus a Mike Edwards own goal sent Chelsea cruising 
through to the next round.

But it was the manner with which Chelsea overcame their 
honest and committed Third Division foes which will have 
delighted Vialli.

It was the type of day fans needed distress flares and life 
jackets just to make their way from the car-park to a seat in 
the main stand.

It called for strength and courage, grit and heart, and 
good, old-fashioned workrate rather than mere football.

Chelsea have been accused of lacking most of the former 
over the past few months but as the biting breeze from the 
North Sea swept squall after squall over Boothferry Park, it 
was at last discovered of what Vialli's foreign legion are 
truly made.

Hull's assistant manager John McGovern, a man who won two 
European Cups with Nottingham Forest 20 years ago, had taken a 
pop at Vialli & Co this week.

"Premiership players are on a fortune. So many of them 
don't give a monkey's," McGovern had said. This afternoon, 
Chelsea rolled up their royal blue sleeves and got down to 
some seriously hard work.

It was just as well for Hull showed, in several little 
cameos, that they are a side, under player-manager Warren 
Joyce, who may at last be heading in the right direction after 
the desperation which almost saw them drop out of the Football 
League last season.

In truth Hull did themselves no favours by producing a 
flawless game surface which would put Old Trafford to 
shame.

There are few teams better equipped to take advantage of 
such a slick surface than Chelsea and it became apparent early 
on that their speed of thought and precision of passing was 
capable of embarrassing Hull 

So it proved as early as the eighth minute when Poyet poked 
a pass through for Sutton, only for the ball to come back to 
Poyet off defender John Whitney.

Before you could say Humberside the ball was nesting in the 
home net, after flying over Bracey in a delightful arc.

Sutton made it two on the half-hour, with an acrobatic 
header which sailed over the despairing arms of Lee Bracey, it 
seemed that one way traffic was inevitable.

But Hull launched a spirited fightback and the cheer which 
greeted striker David Brown's goal after 38 minutes, when he 
rounded Chelsea keeper Ed de Goey before clipping the ball 
into the empty net, must have been heard in Holland.

Vialli's concern at that point was shown as he replaced 
slight Gianfranco Zola with the stronger Tore Andre Flo at 
half-time and the Londoners came up with two goals in two 
minutes which effectively killed the game.

First di Matteo cashed in on a mix-up in the Hull defence, 
cutting his right-foot shot high into the roof of the net from 
20 yards, two minutes later Jon Harley was sent hurtling down 
the left wing before pinging across a wonderful left-foot 
curler which was clinically dispatched by the head of 
Poyet.

Little Dennis Wise was by this time running the show from 
midfield and he was picking out runners from all angles. He 
was also laid flat by Whitney with a challenge which earned 
the Hull defender a booking and saw tempers fraying with 
players from each side squaring up to each other.

Fortunately the tempers cooled and Wise went on a 
bewildering run to the by-line before squaring for Poyet to 
tap home from two yards for what must have been the easiest 
goal of his career.

Still Chelsea were not satisfied and drove forward in a 
vast tidal wave of gloom which engulfed Hull.

Even so, Hull could have earned a deserved consolation when 
Steve Harper's shot bounced in front of de Goey and ballooned 
bizarrely against the bar.

For all Hull's efforts it was the cruellest cut of all with 
just seconds left when another mesmerising Wise run ended with 
the little midfielder sliding in a left-foot shot which 
defender Edwards could only deflect for an own goal.

Hull had been hit for six and the gulf between the sides 
was as wide as the Humber Bridge.