$comment_count = substr($anchor, $quote_mark_left +1, $quote_mark_right - $quote_mark_left -1);
1 comment 2 comment 5 comment ....
1 2 5
preg_match_all('~(?:^|\n)(\d+)[ ]+~', $comment_count, $numbers);echo '<pre>', print_r($numbers[1], true), '</pre>';