Break after post in sidebar

I have a rather stupid question about something I am trying to do in my sidebar;

I have on my page http://www.krapuul.nl a full width txt/php box (which I uploaded as a plugin) and I have in there the following code:

<?php query_posts('category_name=zijdebarlink&showposts=15'); ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
        <li>

<?php the_content(); ?><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" alt="reageer/lees reacties"><?php comments_number('...(0)','...(1)','...(%)'); ?></a>
</li>
        <?php endwhile; ?>

The problem is that after php the_content there seems to occur a break. You can see it on my page in the linkdump box. I want the comment number behind the content, and not below it. It looks rather stupid the way it looks now.

And one small question; any ideas why the “alt” in my code doesn’t seem to work?

Thanks