Wholly fair? Not by a long way (4,4)

I believe the answer is:

only just

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'not by a long way' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'wholly fair?' is the wordplay.
'wholly' becomes 'only' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'fair?' becomes 'just' ('just' is associated in meaning with 'fair').
'only'+'just'='ONLY JUST'

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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