BOURNEMOUTH'S highly-rated central defender Eddie Howe has emerged as the latest transfer target for Clarets boss Stan Ternent.

Howe was left out of Bournemouth's side at Port Vale at the 11th hour on Saturday following intense transfer speculation.

Bolton, Middlesbrough and Fulham have also been linked with the England under-21 international but reports on the south coast suggest the Clarets are leading the race for his signature.

If Ternent lands the 23-year-old then he will be re-united with Burnley defender Ian Cox, who played over 100 games alongside Howe at Dean Court.

Ternent has stated his desire to bring in some younger players to help take Burnley forward after consolidating their First Division place this season.

And the boss -- who has also again been linked with a loan move for Manchester City striker Gareth Taylor -- is adamant that will be achieved despite Saturday's last-gasp defeat to Crystal Palace. "It's very frustrating for the players, the fans and me as the manager but I'm very confident we'll bounce back from it and we'll maintain our First Division status," Ternent said.

"The players did okay and were extremely frustrated and very disappointed that it's gone against them.

"But that's why it's such a hard profession and we have to crack on with it. We worked hard to get ourselves into this league and we have to take setbacks on the chin like grown men. It's how we react that counts.

"This last six or eight weeks we've had a bit of a rocky patch and only picked up four points in that period of time, yet we are still in tenth position and that's all credit to the players because we had such a good start.

"We'll be all right and the players will respond," added the manager, who praised the supporters in a crowd of 14,973 for their backing.

"I thought the fans were excellent. I've been accused of saying all Burnley fans boo, which I've never said.

"They were fantastic. That just goes to show how well supported we are and we have to do better for them, and we will."

Burnley led 1-0 thanks to Paul Cook's goal and were just the width of the crossbar from going two up through a deflected Steve Davis effort before Palace broke away to level and then grabbed an injury-time winner.

"It's very disappointing. If I'd scored instead of hitting the bar at 2-0 I think it's safe to say we would have gone on to win the game," said Davis.

"But it turned out they went down the other end and scored and then got the winner in the last minute. I think we had enough chances to have got at least a point out of the game but it's just disappointing with the goals. We seem to be conceding goals which from our point of view are avoidable.

"But certainly at this level and at the highest level if you make little mistakes they generally do get punished."

He added: "If you keep on losing games you do start looking to see how the teams at the bottom are doing.

"But I think with the amount of points we've got we should be looking at the other end of the table, possibly, to see how many points we are from a play-off place.

"A the minute, as we've said all along, to make sure we consolidate and stay up is the main priority and it still remains the same.

"We've got a good group of lads who are determined to do well for the club and the supporters."

Kevin Ball missed Saturday's game through illness after being sent home from training on Friday and Paul Cook was under the weather and had to be replaced after 45 minutes.

The Clarets youth team lost 6-0 at Tranmere.

Ternent in link with Bournemouth's Howe