toptop

Avram Grant secured his first victory as manager of Chelsea with a comfortable 4-0 Carling Cup win over Hull.

Chelsea cruised past Hull at the KC Stadium and into Saturday's draw for the fourth round of the cup courtesy of strikes from Scott Sinclair, a Damien Delaney own goal, Steve Sidwell and Salomon Kalou.

The holders were always comfortably in control of the third round encounter and continually looked dangerous from a succession of early corners.

Grant was unfortunate not to see his side awarded an early penalty when John Terry headed towards goal only for Delaney to prod the ball wide with an arm, but referee Chris Foy missed the offence.

Chelsea, though, were to take the lead when teenager Sinclair netted his first goal for the Blues on 37 minutes.

The 18-year-old met a cross from Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was a constant danger, to slot a controlled right-footed finish past Boaz Myhill in the Hull goal.

Dominated

A crowd of around 24,000 had turned out at the KC, but they were forced to watch their team be thoroughly dominated.

Former Bolton striker Henrik Pedersen, who was making his first Hull start, proved a good aerial target when one-on-one with Ashley Cole and Jay-Jay Okocha also threatened from dead balls, but home chances on goal were rare.

After the interval Chelsea killed the tie when Delaney, who was under pressure from Kalou, headed a Claudio Pizarro cross into his own goal on 48 minutes.

Chelsea, who introduced Wayne Bridge for his first appearance of the season in place of Ashley Cole, then wasted little time in extending the lead when Sidwell rifled home from 20 yards after being fed by Pizarro.

Okocha then gave Chelsea their biggest scare of the night when he curled a trademark free-kick narrowly over Carlo Cudicini's crossbar.

However, Kalou then compounded Hull's misery when substitute Joe Cole broke down the right before pulling back to the striker who blasted home from 10 yards.

Teams

Hull City Myhill, Brown, Delaney (Dawson 53), Ricketts, Turner, Ashbee, Elliott (Garcia 53), Livermore, Okocha, McPhee, Pedersen (Featherstone 73)
Subs Not Used Woodhead, Hughes
Booked Brown
Goals 

Chelsea Cudicini, Belletti, Ben Haim, A. Cole (Bridge 65), Terry, Essien (Makelele 73), Sidwell, Wright-Phillips (J. Cole 49), Kalou, Pizarro, Sinclair
Subs Not Used Hilario, Shevchenko
Booked
Goals Sinclair 37, Kalou 48, 81, Sidwell 52

Attendance 23,543

Referee  C. Foy