[eluser]sophistry[/eluser]
it depends which part of the "link" you are referring to. the href attribute or the display text that shows in between the open and close "a" tags?
which one of these:
Code:
<a href="this/is/a/path/and/shouldnothavespaces">display text with spaces</a>
if it is the display text, you just need to turn your less-than into a greater-than:
Code:
[^>](wordone wordtwo)
note: this assumes no space between the greater-than sign and the string "wordone".
cheers.