Rangers defender Steven Whittaker is hoping his performance for a depleted Scotland side in the 2-0 loss at the hands of Japan in Yokohama on Saturday evening will have helped strengthen his place in George Burley's future squads.

The 25-year-old was named in Burley's starting line-up after 10 players withdrew from the original squad named for the clash at Nissan Stadium.

The injury-enforced pull outs of players such as Shaun Maloney, Scott Brown, Darren Fletcher and Alan Hutton sparked controversy at home and in Japan, but Whittaker was keen to see the positives from the friendly.

"There's a few of us who will have benefited from the trip and a few of us will have done ourselves no harm, so it's been good for us," said the former Hibernian defender.

"These things are always going to happen at this time of the year, that's just the way it is."

In addition to being able to take a closer look at a number of his fringe players, Burley handed Scotland debuts to six players throughout the course of the 90 minutes.

Lee Wallace, Ross Wallace, Graham Dorrans and Craig Conway all earned their first caps from the start of the clash, while Don Cowie and Stephen Hughes made their first appearance for Scotland from the bench.

The new faces were unable to deny Japan the win, with Christophe Berra's own goal giving the home side the lead before Keisuke Honda's strike in the final minute sealed the result.

"The manager's just doing his job, looking at everybody and he will have in his mind what's the best squad," added Whittaker.

"With so many injuries it was a chance to show how well we can do.

"Of course, it was disappointing to lose but I thought we acquitted ourselves well, I certainly don't think we could have done anything about the first goal.

"Technically they were a very good team but I thought we played well against them under the circumstances.

"We've been here since Thursday and we've slept well and been rested, trained well and eaten right so the long journey didn't have any real impact.

"We have no excuses because it only really took us 24 hours to get over the trip."

Scotland's focus now shifts to preparing for the qualifying rounds for Euro 2012 and Whittaker is under no illusions regarding the challenges that lie ahead.

"It's always the same for Scotland, it's always going to be difficult," he said. "It's disappointing not to qualify for the World Cup but we have to look forward to the next campaign."