Burley suffered his seventh defeat as Scotland manager in Japan

Scotland manager George Burley insisted the friendly with Japan was a worthwhile exercise after six players made their debuts in the 2-0 defeat.

A raft of call-offs left the Scots with a decimated squad and they lost out in Yokohama to a Christophe Berra own goal and a late strike by Keisuke Honda.

"As a team, they were excellent at times and gave everything they had," Burley told BBC Scotland.

"There were two or three outstanding performances from the newcomers."

Burley's side held their hosts for more than 80 minutes before Berra's unfortunate intervention gave Japan the lead.

Before that, Scotland substitute Steven Fletcher had gone through on goal only to be foiled by goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima.

"In international football, you've got to be solid, you can't go chasing the ball too early," said Burley. "You've got to be well organised, you've got to be hard to beat.

"Considering that it was virtually a team thrown together, I thought their discipline was superb.

"It was a cruel blow with the own goal. We sort of shot ourselves in the foot with a quick throw-in, but overall I was very pleased with the exercise and we certainly got a lot out of it.

"Steven Fletcher had that great opportunity and I think the goalkeeper's studs actually stopped it. That would've been great if we had been able to stick that in the net.

"It was a game where the education you get from coming to places like this is tremendous and the journey wasn't a problem to us and the players gave their all, so it was certainly a worthwhile exercise.

It's important we have a look at players and it's important we get some of our experienced players back as well Scotland manager George Burley

"It was a great occasion for the players to participate in at one of the best stadiums in the world. It was a terrific atmosphere, 61,000 people and I think 500 Scottish fans so that was great."

Scotland's next game will be a friendly against Wales in Cardiff in November and Burley is keen to get some of his regular squad members back in the team.

"That'll be a good game, a good challenge," he said. "I'm sure we'll take plenty of fans and it'll certainly be another test for us.

"We'll be looking to pick our strongest squad, like we did for this game.

"We've had horrendous luck with injuries for this game. I'm sure it will be better for the next, but what it's done is given me a look at a number of players.

"When you're only talking about four or five games now before we play in the European Championship qualifiers, it's important we have a look at players and it's important we get some of our experienced players back as well."

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