CENTRE-BACK Steve Vickers was locked in further talks with Crystal Palace last night over a £1m move from Middlesbrough.

Vickers was absent from the 3-2 victory over West Brom on Sunday that pushed Palace briefly to top spot in Division One until Wolves later took over.

The 33-year-old was forced to miss the game because his one-month loan deal expired last week.

But Vickers has been an outstanding success at Selhurst Park, with Palace losing just one match since he made the loan switch.

The obstacle to a permanent deal is his refusal to uproot his young family from the North-East and move to London. But Palace are prepared to compromise.

They are offering to allow him to live and train in the North-East and travel to London for just two days a week, and yesterday's talks were focused on attempting to finalise details.

Palace manager Steve Bruce is desperate to utilise the Premiership experience of Vickers as he pushes for promotion in his first season in charge.

Bruce confirmed after Sunday's victory that he will not be leaving Palace to take over at Birmingham City, following the departure of Trevor Francis.

Meanwhile, long-term Boro target Brett Emerton revealed yesterday he is likely to move to the Premiership in the near future.

The Australian midfielder believes Feyenoord are ready to cash in for around £8m, but Boro are unlikely to be involved in the bidding.

Boro's Craig Dove is in the under-19 England squad for the start of their European Championship bid next week.

The Hartlepool-born winger has been named for the preliinary-round games against Georgia at York and Hungary at Barnsley.

Boro have appealed against Paul Ince's sending-off last week but it is now certain to fail after the FA's decision to discipline Dermot Gallagher.

Ince was shown the red card by referee Mark Halsey against Sunderland and the case will be heard on Thursday.

The Boro skipper was dismissed after pushing Niall Quinn in the face but Leeds United's Robbie Keane was shown only a yellow card for a similar offence on Saturday.

An FA spokesman said: "Mark Halsey was correct in his interpretation of the law regarding violent conduct and Paul Ince."

Referee Gallagher has been reprimanded by the FA, and will be demoted to the Nationwide League, for not showing Keane a red card after the incident with Manchester United's David Beckham.

Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren believes his players are starting to find the mean streak which will propel them up the Premiership table.

Boro lost 2-1 at in-form Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, but despite seeing his side surrender an early lead, McClaren is confident that they are becoming more difficult to beat by the week after a difficult start to the season.

''Since Southampton, we have had four very good performances,'' he told the club's official website, www.mfc.co.uk.

''We were unlucky to lose at Blackburn, got our just rewards in the next two, and were unfortunate at Tottenham.

''But what we must do is forge a reputation in football that means teams know they have a hard game ahead when they are due to play us.

''Tottenham have a little way to go to reach the top flight, but they have quality players.

''We have a little way to go and we have good players, players who turned in a performance full of character, discipline, quality at times, full of grit and determination, and that's what we want to be.

''We want to make sure we come away to places like Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United, Arsenal, and stay in the game, stay competitive and cause problems.

''The reaction at the end from the Spurs camp told a tale - you would have thought they had won the league.

''It is most important that week in, week out, we provide a consistency that makes people sit up and know that we are for real, we are a force to be reckoned with.

''It's great for the fans, especially those who travel away, to know that we're always in with a chance of winning a game.

''We deserved to get something at Tottenham, but it was just one of those games. Another day we might not play so well and get something out of the game, and that would be nice.

''We have to lick our wounds and take as much heart as we can from that performance.

''We are beginning to get the consistency of performance we have been looking for, and all credit to the players for having the discipline and the character to do that.'