Quite honestly, I referee every game as if being observed. How else would I practice the competencies, all of which I'm aware of?
There is one caveat however. When being observed and faced with a borderline sanction, the risk of managing that situation exceeds the risk associated with issuing the sanction. In a game with no cautions, I've been rewarded for 'finding' an offence late in the game. Far side of the FOP from the observer, two players go up, one takes an accidental elbow. Hey presto, player a bit injured, yellow card and extra 0.5 on AOL. That sort of thing. I've never had an observer contest a caution or dismissal.
There's a reason why clubs and players don't like the Referee being observed. The sanction count goes up
I'm being observed tomorrow as it goes. One thing that concerns me, is this notion of a Sin Bin for two or more players crowding the Referee (me). Unless one of the players is out of order in terms of dissent, that low bar for C2 would cause a loss of respect
By the same token, I was on the line Step 3 Tues night and had a player right in my face on 88 mins. Ref did nowt cos there was no observer and he had club marks in mind. That was p1ss poor refereeing and completely against the mandate. I wadsn't bothered by it, but that's not the point