Michael Murphy says that captaining Donegal to a fourth senior Ulster title is as significant as when he won his first provincial crown.

Donegal comfortably defeated Fermanagh in Clones to secure a ninth Ulster SFC title in all and book their place in the Super 8s, with Murphy kicking 0-04 throughout the tie.

Fermangh failed to match the Donegal challenge in Clones and were trailing 2-07 to 0-05 at half-time following goals from Eoghan Bán Gallagher and Ryan McHugh.

Declan Bonner said after the game that the Ulster championship was a target for Donegal at the outset of the season, while Murphy beamed that it was a special occasion for the Donegal team to enjoy.

"It's as good as the first," Murphy told RTÉ Sport after lifting the cup. 

"Any time you get up there and get at it is brilliant and to be here with everybody, all the players and management and backroom team. All the supporters are here and it's a brilliant day for Donegal. We'll just keep pushing on.

"They're a special bunch [of lads], the young lads that came in I suppose played with Declan [Bonner] at Under-20 and they've absolutely no fear.

"I think they've got the best out of us boys too and what we're at. It's fortunate that we got off to a decent start today and managed to keep that gap throughout the game and just delighted to get up there. We get to move on now which is great."

The 2012 All-Ireland winning captain pointed to the first half goals as being critical moments in the game which allowed them to go on and score a comprehensive win, and stressed that the squad will enjoy their achievement, before contemplating the Super 8s competition later in the championship.

"I suppose the goals in the first half, it was nip and tuck before that and we managed to get a goal that put us four up at the time. We managed to go five up and then we got another goal.

"I don't think that six-point lead was ever relinquished and it was tit for tat in the second half. We were delighted to keep that scoreline.

"You have to keep pushing on and not rest on the laurels but it's still fantastic and we'll enjoy tonight."