Chelsea beat Southend in FA Cup

Chelsea improved as the match went on to beat Southend United 4-1 in an FA Cup third round replay on Wednesday after a jittery opening against the League One (third division) side.

Goals from Michael Ballack, Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka and Frank Lampard gave Chelsea, with only one win in their previous six matches, a deserved win after Southend had taken a 16th-minute lead with an Adam Barrett header.

Hull City also made it through to the last 32 when they won the all-Premier League replay 1-0 against Newcastle United at St James' Park with an 81st minute tap-in from Daniel Cousin.

Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear and Hull counterpart Phil Brown were sent to the stands in the first half after squaring up to each other on the touchline.

Crystal Palace earned a trip to fellow Championship side Watford in the next round after they beat League One (third division) leaders Leicester City 2-1 at Selhurst Park with Paul Ifill and teenage substitute Sean Scannell scoring Palace's goals.

Chelsea set up a fourth-round meeting with Ipswich Town of the Championship (second division) after taking control of the game which at one point in the evening was called off by referee Chris Hoy because of fog.

However, seven minutes after he took that decision, the fog lifted at Roots Hall and he allowed the match to go ahead.

Southend were initially very pleased it did, taking a shock lead when Barrett exploited a weakness in Chelsea's new zonal marking system to power in a header after 16 minutes.

Southend almost made it 2-0 20 minutes later when the zonal system failed again and Alex Revell headed straight at Chelsea keeper Peter Cech.

Ballack put Chelsea back in the match seconds before halftime with a well struck goal after a Southend mix-up before Kalou and Anelka added further goals in the second half.

Lampard's close-range effort in stoppage time completed the comeback.