diff --git a/apps/wolfsshd/test/sshd_term_close_test.sh b/apps/wolfsshd/test/sshd_term_close_test.sh
index 395f343b..d0e464f5 100755
--- a/apps/wolfsshd/test/sshd_term_close_test.sh
+++ b/apps/wolfsshd/test/sshd_term_close_test.sh
@@ -19,9 +19,16 @@ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/openssl-1.1.1/lib
 # get the current wolfsshd pid count to compare with
 WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT=$(pgrep wolfsshd | wc -l)
 
-COMMAND="timeout 2 $TEST_CLIENT -p $2 -i $PRIVATE_KEY $3@$1 \"sleep 10\""
+COMMAND="$TEST_CLIENT -p $2 -i $PRIVATE_KEY $3@$1 \"echo test\""
 echo "$COMMAND"
+set -e
+$COMMAND
+set +e
+
+COMMAND="timeout 3 $TEST_CLIENT -p $2 -i $PRIVATE_KEY $3@$1 \"sleep 10\""
+echo "$COMMAND &"
 $COMMAND &
+sleep 1
 WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT_AFTER=$(pgrep wolfsshd | wc -l)
 if [ "$WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT" = "$WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT_AFTER" ]; then
     echo "Expecting another wolfSSHd pid after connection"
@@ -29,6 +36,7 @@ if [ "$WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT" = "$WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT_AFTER" ]; then
     echo "PID count after  = $WOLFSSHD_PID_COUNT_AFTER"
     exit 1
 fi
+
 netstat -nt | grep ESTABLISHED
 RESULT=$?
 if [ "$RESULT" != "0" ]; then