How to create a transparent border using CSS in a subclass?

I am trying to create a transparent border around the page number 1 shown below in the image. I've created a subclass span tag so that I could target only that element but it seems not be working. I found some similar question saying to create a space in the CSS but still it is not working.

Like the one below.

HTML (Please ignore jsp tags)

<display:setProperty name="paging.banner.full" value='<span class="pagelinks"> <a href="{1}"> <img src="../images/integration/FastLeft.jpg"/> </a> <a href="{2}"> <img src="../images/integration/SlowLeft.jpg"/> </a> | Page {5} of {6} | <a href="{3}">  <img src="../images/integration/SlowRight.jpg"/> </a> <a href="{4}"> <img src="../images/integration/FastRight.jpg"/> </a></span>'/>
<display:setProperty name="paging.banner.first" value='<span class="pagelinks"> <img src="../images/integration/FastLeft.jpg"/> <img src="../images/integration/SlowLeft.jpg"/> | Page <span class="pageNumberBorder">{5}</span> of {6} | <a href="{3}"> <img src="../images/integration/SlowRight.jpg"/> </a> <a href="{4}"> <img src="../images/integration/FastRight.jpg"/> </a></span>'/>
<display:setProperty name="paging.banner.last" value='<span class="pagelinks"> <a href="{1}"> <img src="../images/integration/FastLeft.jpg"/> </a> <a href="{2}"> <img src="../images/integration/SlowLeft.jpg"/> </a> | Page {5} of {6} | <img src="../images/integration/SlowRight.jpg"/> <img src="../images/integration/FastRight.jpg"/> </span>'/>

CSS

.pagelinks .pageNumberBorder {
 border: 1px solid transparent;
}

JS Fiddle