Stockton-born Davies turned in a man-of-the-match display as he made his second Boro debut in Saturday's 3-2 win at Millwall, eight-and-a-half years after his first appearance for the club came in a League Cup defeat at Ipswich Town.
The 26-year-old played 64 games during his first spell on Teesside before a brief period at Southampton preceded a ?2m move to Stoke in August 2008.
However, he quickly fell down the pecking order at the Britannia Stadium and is still to make a single league start for the Potters.
He rejoined Boro on a season-long loan last Friday, having spent more than a month training at Rockliffe Park at the turn of the year, and is determined to resurrect his career with the club that has always been closest to his heart.
"I've kept the Stoke experience to myself but it obviously hurt," said Davies, who started both legs of Boro's UEFA Cup victories over Roma and Stuttgart in the 2005-06 season. "I haven't really talked about it to anyone, including my family, but it's been eating me away inside.
"I've never really given up on my Stoke career. I've been there three years and haven't played a Premier League game for them, but I still feel as though I have the ability if someone just gives me a chance.
"For whatever reason, that chance never happened, but Tony Mowbray has brought me back to Middlesbrough and given me an opportunity to show what I can do, and I'm determined to take it.
"I want to show people what I'm capable of, and I want to do everything I can to help this club and repay the people who have shown faith in me.
"I'm a Middlesbrough boy and I care for the club. I was involved from the age of 12, so to get the chance to come back and play again was something I couldn't turn down.
"It's an opportunity for me to show people what I can do again, and I keep promising myself that I'm not going to let this chance slip."
On the evidence of Saturday's events at The New Den, Davies' loan deal could be of benefit to all concerned in the final three months of the season.
For the defender, a player whose best years should still be ahead of him, it is an opportunity to step out of the shadows he had been inhabiting in the Potteries.
For Boro, still just seven points clear of the relegation zone despite Saturday's success, it is an arrangement that provides a centre-half capable of leading the backline and withstanding the kind of aerial assault that has proved their undoing in so many matches this season.
Without Davies' steadying presence, there is every chance the Teessiders could have wilted as Millwall piled on the pressure in the final ten minutes of this weekend's game.
Instead, with the Academy product winning a series of headers and interceptions, they held on to claim a crucial three points.
"I explained what type of player I am before I even started training," said Davies. "Maybe that's why the gaffer has brought me back to the club, I train the same way I play, and I like to think I always give my all.
"I'm generally a talker, and it was important to keep a couple of the younger lads on their toes (at Millwall). It was good, I enjoyed it.
"The lads know how good they are. You have players in there who have played in the Premier League and UEFA Cup. You know what they can do, so it's just about getting yourself in a position where that class and ability can come through.
"These are nasty games to play in. Sometimes, you just have to dig deep, battle and fight. There will be games, like Bristol City away, where we effectively pass teams off the pitch. That's what we can do. But you have to be able to grit and fight to get into a position where you can do that."
During Davies' first spell at the club, Boro were regularly outplaying the best teams in the country.
Those days are gone, with Championship survival the only ambition in the remainder of the season, so how does the Teessider reflect on the changed reality at the Riverside
"I've played in some big games for Middlesbrough," he said. "But when you see the whole of the team working as hard as they did on Saturday, it's fantastic to be involved in a match like that.
"If I'm in a Middlesbrough shirt, I'm going to be giving my best. That's what I did at the weekend, and it's what I'll do whenever I'm called upon in the future.
"Middlesbrough has changed a lot over the last few years, but you can only control what you can control on a football pitch. As players, that's all we can do.
"I said in the changing room after the game, if everybody works as hard as that for each other, we'll always have a chance of winning matches. And if you're winning matches, you'll always feel good."
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo