Formartine gave themselves the ideal tonic before tomorrow night’s home Scottish Cup fourth round tie against Cove Rangers.
The North Lodge Park side ran out 5-0 winners but it took three late goals to finally end the Speysiders’ resistance.
United player-manager Paul Lawson said: “Despite the eventual scoreline, Rothes were probably the slightly better side in the first half.
“The conditions helped the way they wanted to play. They pressed us high and it was difficult to get out of our own half because of the wind. We scored a good goal to go in 1-0 up at the break.
“We scored three late goals which made it look the game was easier than it actually was for us.”
United opened the scoring against the run of play in the 20th minute when top scorer Archie Macphee netted.
It took until the 51st minute for the home side to double their advantage when Conor Gethins struck. Three goals in the final 11 minutes from Graeme Rodger, Macphee again and Scott Barbour made it a slightly flattering 5-0 victory.
Rothes manager Steven MacDonald said: “In the end it finished up as a heavy defeat.
“Formartine were in cruise control for most of the match and thoroughly deserved their victory so fair play to them.
“They have goals throughout their team and they have some classy players in their starting 11 and on the bench.
“They were far too good for us and it was a lesson for us.
“The pitch was great and the wind was really strong in the first half which actually helped us but Formartine still went in at half-time 1-0 ahead.”