diff --git a/doc/man/gen-manpages.sh b/doc/man/gen-manpages.sh
index 9b4eb38b9..6e3f813a5 100755
--- a/doc/man/gen-manpages.sh
+++ b/doc/man/gen-manpages.sh
@@ -1,60 +1,60 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 export LC_ALL=C
 
 set -euxo pipefail
 
 usage() {
   cat << EOF
 Usage: $0 bitcoind binary manpage
   bitcoind: path to bitcoind executable
   binary: path to the binary to generate the man pages from
   manpage: output path for the man page
 EOF
 }
 
 if [ $# -ne 3 ]
 then
   usage
   exit 1
 fi
 
 if ! command -v help2man
 then
   echo "help2man is required to run $0, please install it"
   exit 2
 fi
 
 BITCOIND="$1"
 BIN="$2"
 MANPAGE="$3"
 
 if [ ! -x "${BITCOIND}" ]
 then
   echo "${BITCOIND} not found or not executable."
   exit 4
 fi
 if [ ! -x "${BIN}" ]
 then
   echo "${BIN} not found or not executable."
   exit 5
 fi
 
 mkdir -p "$(dirname ${MANPAGE})"
 
 # The autodetected version git tag can screw up manpage output a little bit
-read -r -a VERSION <<< "$(${BITCOIND} --version | head -n1 | awk -F'[ -]' '{ print $5, $6 }')"
+read -r -a VERSION <<< "$(${BITCOIND} --version | awk -F'[ -]' 'NR == 1 { print $4, $5 }')"
 
 # Create a footer file with copyright content.
 # This gets autodetected fine for bitcoind if --version-string is not set,
 # but has different outcomes for bitcoin-qt and bitcoin-cli.
 FOOTER="$(basename ${BIN})_footer.h2m"
 cleanup() {
   rm -f "${FOOTER}"
 }
 trap "cleanup" EXIT
 echo "[COPYRIGHT]" > "${FOOTER}"
 "${BITCOIND}" --version | sed -n '1!p' >> "${FOOTER}"
 
 help2man -N --version-string="${VERSION[0]}" --include="${FOOTER}" -o "${MANPAGE}" "${BIN}"
 sed -i "s/\\\-${VERSION[1]}//g" "${MANPAGE}"